The Song of Freedom starred the celebrated Paul
Robeson, an influential African-American figure in
history and one of the world's greatest voices, who is
fresh from his success in Sanders of the River. This
is the great singers juiciest film role (The Emperor
Jones was still on the stereotypical side), but in a
film carelessly directed by J. Elder Wills ("Big
Fella") resulting in a dated and uneven work. Though
it's worth seeing just to hear Robeson sing and
because of its take on the racial issues of the day.
It's a film where one of the characters says with a
straight face about the natives "The people, still
dominated by these witch doctors, will never allow the
white man to come near them. And so, they are still
backward, uncivilized, impoverished."

Robeson plays John Zinga, a London longshoreman who
gets along well with the other white dock workers and
is discovered by an opera impresario (Esme Percy)
while singing "Jericho" on the docks. The impresario
makes him into an opera singer. When John sings his
"Freedom Song" for an opera about Africa, a song that
was handed down to him from his family generations,
he's told by someone in the audience that there's a
history to that song. John learns that in 1700 a
couple escaped from the cruel Queen Zinga (Cornelia
Smith) on a West African island but are taken on a
slave ship to Europe. Also, a royal medallion taken at
the time is passed on to succeeding
generations--something he possesses. John gives up his
opera success and finds a way to return to his native
roots in West Africa when he discovers that he's a
king on a small island and in a position to save his
people from the power of the witch doctors. He will
sing the "Freedom Song" again in the climactic scene
when that song convinces the witch doctors that he's
the rightful king of the Kasanga tribe and they let
his wife Ruth (Elizabeth Welch) go free after holding
her as a hostage. When the film transfers its studio
set to Africa, it took on the cheesy look of a B-film
and its unrealistic depiction of Africa was not even
on par with those Tarzan films.

Robeson was a booming voice against racism from the
1930s on and because of his outspoken criticism of the
American government and his belief in communism and
socialism as a possible solution to the problem of
racism in America, he was during the Red Scare of the
'50s forced into a self-imposed exile to live in
Europe. In the 1930s he lived in London in order to
find artistic freedom and escape the stereotyped roles
offered him in America, and traveled widely across
Europe, Africa, and in particular the Soviet
Union.

The Song of Freedom was made by Hammer Films in
London. Robeson is quoted in saying that he liked the
role because it was "the first film to give a true
picture of many aspects of the life of the colored man
in the West and it showed the struggle his people were
going through to educate themselves."